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Globalization has led to economic integration and interdependence across international borders. Action or changes in any part of the global system could have a potential impact on other regions. The greater the degree of interdependence, the deeper the impact could be on an organization’s effectiveness. Moreover, those economies that are purchasers of goods and services will have an even greater impact on the behaviors of suppliers, or producers, of goods.Compared with suppliers, it is much easier for purchasers to adjust their consumer behaviors. Therefore, countries, such as the United States and some European countries, are adjusting their consumer behaviors, while the challenge to China, as a major producing nation, is to adjust production behaviors after the global financial crisis.
Moreover, in both producing and consuming nations, an essential strategy for companies is to shift the operational paradigm from local and vertical integration to global and horizontal networks. How can companies deal with the challenges of the post global financial crisis while meeting the requirements of the economic transition? The efforts of government officials, business managers, and scholars are needed to address this issue. With the arrival of global economic integration and the development of Information networking-based economy, companies worldwide have been exposed to enormous opportunities and challenges for their sustainable development. On the one hand, the information technology (IT) revolution serves as one of the important forces to enhance both global economy and the societal development.
Particularly with the help of the rapid growth of information networking, the whole world has been conveniently connected across counties, regions, organizations, groups, and individuals, leading to a business environment without boundaries. On the other hand, global economic integration and information networking has exerted threats or challenges to the sustainable development of multinational companies, in terms of the dramatic transformation in such aspects as corporate growth, management mode, internal administrative mechanism, and organizational structure.
How can multinational business management foster sustainable development with the help of the global economic integration and information networking, while successfully meeting the inevitable challenges? To explore solutions to the issues arising from this emerging international business environment, and to meet the new challenges facing management scholars, the School of Business, Nanjing University, will host the Eighth International Symposium on Multinational Business Management in June 2014.
